Other GT Links

Friday, October 06, 2006

Bill Curry may not have gotten the AD job, but he doesn't stop supporting his alma mater 110% and he doesn't stop supporting the game of football and he doesn't stop supporting our troops. Check out this very poignant article:

Bill Curry on men and women serving in the military:

GratitudeYes, son, we are alive, and we deeply appreciate your father, his great service, and his stirring words. Whatever debt is owed us for playing our sport has been paid in full by men and women like your father and Derrick Deeds. The fact is that we played our game and lived our lives as free Americans only because of people like your dad. We owe him. We will continue to live as a free people because there are many men and women who are willing to do what your father is doing for us now.

CommunityFootball is the greatest team sport ever invented, the only game in which every player needs every teammate on every play, simply to survive. In that sense, it is virtually a mirror image of these United States. Its strange allure to our people is demonstrated again and again in times of crisis. Remember the crowds after 9-11. Indeed, remember the crowd in the New Orleans Superdome a couple of weeks ago.

As my great mentor Herb Barks reminded me this morning, it is the remembrance of community that resonates in human hearts and minds. That makes a difference. When we focus upon it, we transcend the foolish aspects of the game, and remember to celebrate its true values, the ones that coincide with those that have kept our nation free.

We will never forget those who give sacrificially so that we can live as we do. They make all the difference.